A “hotline” for the evacuation of civilians from the combat zone and front-line territories was launched in the Kharkiv region

On Monday, December 11, Oleh Ivanov, head of the evacuation department of the “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” charity organization, Iryna Sanina – head of the department for work with IDPs of the “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” charity organization, and Serhiy Myroshnychenko, a representative of the “Syla ta Yednist” (“Unity and Strength”) charity foundation, spoke about the results of the first month of operation of the “hotline” for the evacuation of people from the frontline areas, as well as the work of the charity sector regarding forced evacuation.

Oleh Ivanov noted that last month, families with children were forcibly evacuated from ten settlements in the Kupyansk district. About 700 calls were received to the “hotline” number with requests for assistance in evacuation and receiving humanitarian aid.

“For two weeks, 11 organizations from the charitable sector also participated in the evacuation. The “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” helped with fuel and transport repairs, and we also coordinated the actions of the charity sector with the National Police, district and regional military-civilian administrations. During this time, volunteers managed to take 125 children out of the combat zone.”

The speaker also talked about the problems that the volunteers encountered during the evacuation: the lack of communication and normal logistics due to constant shelling from the occupying forces, as well as a large number of evacuated children.

“This evacuation was the largest in terms of the number of minors taken out. We lost a lot of resources and time while we were persuading every family to go with us,” said the head of the evacuation department of the “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” charity organization.

Volunteers worked in cooperation with law enforcement officers. The police talked to the families – if they were not ready to leave, they left a request on the “hotline” for evacuation, indicating a convenient day for them. Crews of volunteers took them out.

“This evacuation showed that we need to conduct an information campaign so that people know where to call and how to get out of the war zone with our help. We, in turn, are developing new protocols for evacuation and informing the population together with representatives of the community authorities – through TV and radio channels, postcards, and through relatives.”

Oleh Ivanov also emphasized that at the moment there is almost no evacuation from the Vovchansk district, while the Kupyansk district is quite active: people are leaving Kivsharivka, Kupyansk Vuzlovy, Kurylivka. Dvorichna is the most dangerous city for the evacuation process. The rate of evacuation is 10-15 people per day.

Iryna Sanina, head of the department for work with IDPs of the “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” charity organization, told about the main stages of evacuating people: moving to a transit point, providing medical and psychological assistance, administrative services, resettlement in dormitories with provision of food kits, things, and hygiene products.

“They can stay in the dormitory as long as they need. About 200 seats are still available. There are still about five thousand places in the reserve,” Ms. Iryna said.

Serhiy Myroshnychenko said that during each evacuation trip, the representatives of the “Syla ta Yednist” Charitable Foundation have protective equipment and tactical first-aid kits for each crew member and for the people they are evacuating, and can also provide first aid if necessary.

Leaving a request for evacuation is simple: you need to call 0800-33-92-91. At the same number, you can get advice on leaving the war zone.

The received applications are transferred by the representatives of the “Coordinating Humanitarian Center” to the partner organizations, which, in turn, fulfill them.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news